Over its 100-year existence, CC Young, a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) that sits on 19.5 acres just five miles from downtown Dallas, has evolved to include independent living, assisted living, and memory care units as well as an adult day center, rehab center, and other amenities. But by 2013, the CCRC was facing the need for updated facilities and more residential units.

“There was a main building with a production kitchen and offices, and five satellite buildings that were essentially dorm living for older people,” says Chris Zinkand, vice president of administration for CC Young (Dallas). “The buildings were old and there was only so much updating you could do without completely gutting and renovating.”

The current set-up of having licensed care spread out over several different buildings was hard on residents when they had to move from one building to another for care. “The existing campus design was inefficient, hard to manage, and residents got confused,” says Grant Warner, principal at D2 Architecture (Dallas) and principal in charge on the project.

In addition to upgrading its buildings for current needs, the CCRC also wanted to be prepared for future changes in care delivery and evolving resident demand and expectations. Its existing buildings were tied to specific care levels, such as assisted living in one building and memory care in another, without space or flexibility to shift. “If the market changed and we needed higher capacity in any one place, we wanted a way to increase that,” Zinkand says.


Looking to address these concerns and set itself up for the future, CC Young brought D2 Architecture on board for master planning discussions. Facing a landlocked campus, which butted up against Dallas’ light rail transit system on one side and an adjacent residential neighborhood on the other, the project team had few options for expansion. Then, CC Young’s owner suggested consolidating the licensed care into one complex—to be called The Vista at CC Young—by expanding onto a small parcel on a steep hillside slope on the east side of campus. “We found a way to make limoncello out of lemons,” Warner says.

Challenges informed design
Turning the hillside into a viable area for a new senior living community meant D2 had to dig down 28 feet to install special retaining walls. This concrete support structure was required to build a tall building, and it also helped to set the building into the side of the hill.

D2 used the newly created below-ground space to create a 65,000-square-foot parking garage for 100 cars, addressing another long-time issue on the campus. “Stacking parking underneath the tower was a more efficient use of a tight site in this corner of the campus,” Warner says.

When it opens later this year, the nine-story, 326,000-gross-square-foot community will house 59 assisted living units, 32 assisted living memory support units, and 129 skilled nursing units. After residents from existing residential buildings are transferred to The Vista, some of the former buildings will be demolished in Phase 2 of the community’s master plan to make room for a new roundabout and entry garden for the campus.

Going up
Delivering a vertical, high-rise space, D2 and Faulkner Design Group (Dallas), which came on board in 2014 to serve as interior designer, designed each floor to serve a different population. Additional levels include the main lobby and entry and a 3,100-square-foot adult day center on the first floor; a spa, rehab suite, multipurpose room, and café on the second floor; and rehab facilities on the eighth floor.

Each residential floor is laid out in an L-shape comprising two households of 16 units on each side of a communal kitchen and multipurpose room. To ensure the building will be flexible for future population changes, the units on floors four to eight are designed to the highest licensing standards to flex between assisted living memory support and skilled nursing. “In five years, if demand surges in the memory support market, for example, CC Young can easily change [a different apartment’s] licensing type with the state,” Warner says.

In addition, once it was decided to build a high-rise, the building code required more stringent construction types and systems to be used, including fire protection, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. “There was a distinct advantage to going ahead and designing all floors to the more stringent skilled nursing standards, since the costliest systems required for skilled nursing licensure were already needed to build a high-rise,” Warner says.

Comforts of home
The assisted living apartments are offered in studio and one- and two-bedroom models, ranging from 375 square feet to 1,349 square feet. Faulkner Design used neutral colors and incorporated universal design concepts so that the apartments would be more easily adapted to a changing population, if the need arises. For example, some units have removable cabinets under sinks to accommodate residents using wheelchairs. Refrigerators are elevated so residents don’t have to bend over to reach in and, in many apartments, microwaves are mounted on countertops with spaces in front for hot food to rest.

Maximizing exterior views played an important role in the design, as well, so floor-to-ceiling windows were installed in all apartments. “We really wanted to elevate the environment, particularly on the skilled nursing floors,” Zinkand says. Even the apartments that face campus instead of the lake or parkland have views of trees and landscaped areas and a central park.

Stacy Peters, director of design at Faulkner Design, says the connection to the outdoors was an important aspect of the biophilic design approach used on the interiors, starting in the lobby with the corridor to the adult day area. Here, designers covered the walls in a high-pressure laminate in multiple colors and finishes, depths, and textures. “We took a modern approach with what we call a ‘deconstructed tree branch wall,’” Peters says. “It’s designed to subtly bring in the outdoors and create visual interest.”

The effect also distracts from the hall’s length by giving visitors something to look at and makes the corridor feel more like an extension of a common area. “It gives a more approachable feel to the corridor,” Peters says. “And once you check in at the reception desk, it’s an easy wayfinding method to get to adult day stay.” The pattern is also used throughout the building on wayfinding signage, light fixtures, artwork, and decorative draperies. In the elevator waiting areas on some floors, a wall sculpture series by local artist Brad Oldham features 3-D cast metal “leaves” that seem to float down the walls from one floor to the next.

While the lobby and other public areas have more of a hospitality feel, it was important for the residential, rehab, and common-use areas adjacent to residents’ living spaces to have the comforts of home. Those touches include a color palette of varied shades of blues, warm grays, and moss green and durable yet soft fabrics for furnishings. “They have their individual apartments, but everything outside their apartments is also their home, and everyone wants to feel comfortable in their home,” Peters says.

Unique offerings
The rehabilitation spaces further distinguish The Vista from a competitive local CCRC market. Located on level two, the 8,500-square-foot wellness and rehabilitation center includes a 70-foot-long pool for water walking with a resistance water loop. There’s also a training kitchen and bathroom that replicate what patients who don’t live at CC Young might have in their own homes.

For that reason, Warner says, these spaces aren’t fully accessible. “We had to get variances to build it,” he says. “For example, there’s a tub in the training bathroom because [residents] may be going back to that. We had to clarify with the regulatory bodies that this is just for training purposes.”

An occupational therapy suite includes an area decked out like a grocery store; stairs for seniors to learn how to negotiate climbing; the training bathroom; and an actual shell of half a car so people can learn how to get in and out of a vehicle after surgery. An outdoor therapy garden features pathways of different surfaces, including concrete, asphalt, stone, gravel, and sand, as well as elements like curbs and stairs with handrails for training.

Settling in
Overall, Zinkand is pleased with the finished product and excited to have all the community’s amenities under one roof. In the old setting, residents were wrapped in blankets on cold days and trundled outside or through a connector bridge to get to rehab in a different building. “Now, they’ll just get on an elevator and go into a conditioned space to a rehab center that’s three times as large,” Zinkand says. EFA

Stacey Freed is a freelance writer based in Pittsford, N.Y. She can be reached at stacey.freed@gmail.com.

Project details
Project name: The Vista at CC Young
Location: Dallas
Expected project completion date: 2019
Owner: CC Young
Total building area: 326,000 gross sq. ft.
Total construction cost: N/A
Cost/sq. ft.: N/A
Architecture: D2 Architecture
Interior design: Faulkner Design Group
Food services design: Scopos Hospitality Group
Landscape architecture: Talley Associates
Engineering: LA Fuess (structural,) RL Goodson (civil,) WSP (MEP)
Construction: Hill & Wilkinson
Art/pictures: Metropolitan Art, Wendover Art Group, Leftbank Art, Art Dallas
AV equipment/electronics/software: Telligence, Telecare IP, Ascom Wireless, Versus RTLS
Carpet/flooring: Shaw Contract, Durkan, Mohawk, Concept Surfaces
Ceiling/wall systems: Rulon International, Armstrong Ceiling, Octopus
Doors: VT Industries, Eggers Industries, Assa Abloy, Total Door Systems, Won-Door Corporation, Kawneer
Locks & hardware: DormaKaba, Schlage, Assa Abloy, Allegion (Von Duprin, LCN)
Fabric/textiles: Architex, Knoll, Burch Fabrics, Kravet
Furniture—seating/casegoods: Kwalu, Kellex, Bernhardt, Hooker Contract Furniture, Steelcase
Handrails/custom millwork: InPro corner guards
Lighting: Top Brass, Rejuvenation, Hubbardton Forge, Hudson Valley, Spike Lighting
Signage/wayfinding: Apco
Surfaces—solid/other: Caesar Stone, Stone Source, Artistic Tile
Wallcoverings: Tri-Kes, Innovations, Koroseal, Phillip Jefferies
Furniture and Art Installation: Design Expediting Services Int’l.
Project details are provided by the design team and not vetted by Environments for Aging.